Deaths

Deaths - Elsewhere

April 13, 2002

MARVIN L. WARNER, 82, savings and loan executive: Warner, who headed the Cincinnati-based Home State Savings Bank when it collapsed in 1985, triggering a run on savings and loans in Ohio, died Monday at Cape Canaveral after suffering heart failure while waiting to watch the space shuttle launch. Warner was convicted of nine counts of fraud-related charges in 1987 and served two years and four months in an Ohio prison. About 90,000 people lost access to $143 million in savings because of Warner's investments in ESM Government Securities Inc., which sold bonds to governments, institutions and individuals. The Florida-based ESM sent out false financial statements that portrayed it as healthy when it was deeply in debt. Warner had served as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland under President Carter from 1977 to 1981.

YUJI HYAKUTAKE, 51, discovered comet: Hyakutake, an amateur astronomer who became an international celebrity for discovering a comet with a pair of powerful binoculars in 1996, died Wednesday of a ruptured heart aneurysm in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima. Hyakutake's discovery set off a flurry of excitement among astronomers because the Hyakutake comet's last earthly flyby was some 10,000 years ago. It was also noted for its sizable 62,000-mile long tail, which was visible for about a month. Hyakutake said his love for astronomy began in 1965 when, as a junior high school student, he saw the Ikeya-Seki Comet, also discovered by Japanese stargazers. He moved to a mountainside away from the glare of city lights to pursue his hobby, and he regularly made the 30-minute trip to his favorite vantage point where he would peer into the skies with his binoculars.

J. WILLIAM STANTON, 78, former congressman: Stanton, a former member of Congress who championed world banking and hunger issues for nearly two decades, died Thursday in Jacksonville. The Ohio Republican served in Congress from 1964 to 1983, and then went on to spend a decade as counselor to the president of the World Bank. In Congress, Stanton was a key member of what was then called the House Banking Committee, where he was the top Republican. After college and service in the military, Stanton returned to Ohio to run the family's automobile business before getting involved in politics.

YADOLLAH SAHABI, 96, Iranian politician: Sahabi, an influential reformist who questioned the unlimited powers of Iran's ruling clerics, died Friday in Tehran. A former legislator, Sahabi often criticized the strict control Islamic religious leaders exercise over most aspects of Iranian life. Because of his age and stature, he was spared the arrests and harassment faced by many other reformists. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, Sahabi was a top aide of Mehdi Bazargan, who briefly served as prime minister but resigned to protest what he considered excesses by the new authorities.